60case filesUpdated Jul 16, 2026
Casepin holds 60 case files from the 1940s. By legal status, 21 marked unsolved, 6 marked cold, 32 marked solved and 1 marked overturned.
Credit: Los Angeles Police DepartmentPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenLeimert Park, Los Angeles, California, USA · 1940s
Elizabeth Short, known posthumously as the Black Dahlia, was found murdered in Los Angeles in January 1947 in a case that remains unsolved.
Credit: Australian police, via English WikipediaPublic domainSourceCOLDListenSomerton Park beach, Adelaide, South Australia · 1940s
An unidentified man was found dead on an Adelaide beach in 1948, in a case that remains officially unresolved despite a 2022 genetic-genealogy identification claim.
Credit: நான் தூங்கCC BY-SA 3.0SourceUNSOLVEDListenVepery, Madras (now Chennai), Madras Presidency, British India · 1943
Tamil film journalist C. N. Lakshmikanthan was fatally stabbed in Madras in November 1944. Film stars M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and N. S. Krishnan were convicted of his murder, but the Privy Council later ordered a retrial that acquitted them. The killing remains unsolved.
Credit: David Buttery (Loganberry (Talk))Public domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenHagley Wood, near Wychbury Hill, Hagley, Worcestershire, England · 1943
In April 1943, four boys discovered the skeletal remains of an unidentified woman hidden inside a hollow wych elm tree in Hagley Wood, Worcestershire. Forensic examination indicated she had been dead since at least October 1941 and had suffocated, but she has never been identified and the case remains unsolved.
UNSOLVEDListenDenton, Texas · 1948
Virginia Carpenter, 21, vanished in Denton, Texas, on the night of June 1, 1948, shortly after a taxi dropped her at her college dormitory, where witnesses reported seeing her approach a convertible with two young men. She was never found, and the case remains unsolved.
Credit: Koba-chan; cropped, marked and wording by Laszlovszky András at Hungarian WikipediaPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenStraits of Florida / Miami vicinity, en route from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Miami, Florida · 1948
A Douglas DC-3 airliner, registration NC16002, disappeared on 28 December 1948 during a scheduled overnight flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami, Florida, with 29 passengers and three crew aboard. No wreckage was ever found and the official investigation could not determine a probable cause.
SOLVEDListen313 East 51st Street, Turtle Bay-Beekman Place, New York City · 1943
Patricia Lonergan, heiress to the Lion Brewery fortune, was beaten and strangled in her New York City apartment in October 1943. Her estranged husband, Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Wayne Lonergan, was arrested in Toronto, extradited, and convicted of second-degree murder in a highly publicized 1944 trial.
SOLVEDListenKnowle Green, near Staines, Middlesex, England · 1944
In October 1944, taxi driver George Edward Heath was robbed and killed near Staines by Karl Hultén, a deserter from the U.S. Army, and Elizabeth Jones, an 18-year-old waitress, during a six-day crime spree; both were convicted of murder.
Sleepy Lagoon reservoir, near Maywood/Commerce/Bell, California · 1942
José Gallardo Díaz, a young Mexican-American man, was found gravely injured near a reservoir in the Los Angeles area on August 2, 1942, and died without regaining consciousness; seventeen Mexican-American youths were arrested and tried, with twelve convicted, before an appeals court overturned all convictions in 1944 for insufficient evidence and judicial bias.
1947 is the year with the most files in the decade, 9 of them. 57 files carry an exact date; the rest are dated to the decade by the record.
They are spread across 29 countries; the most are in United States (13), Ukraine (6) and Israel (4). By type, the largest groups are murder and homicide cases (19), arson cases (7) and hate crime cases (6).
4 files of the 60 have coverage attached: 18 videos, podcasts and documentaries from 8 creators. The most covered is The killing of Elizabeth Short, with 6 items to watch or hear. Kendall Rae, Dr. Todd Grande and Bailey Sarian have covered the most of them.
Every file is written from cited sources and pinned where it happened, and every person named carries the legal status the record gives them. If you hold information about an unsolved case, contact the investigating agency named in its file rather than posting it publicly. Families and anyone involved can request a correction from any file.
Elizabeth Short photo from police bulletin — Credit: Los Angeles Police DepartmentPublic domainSource
SomertonManSuitcase — Credit: Australian police, via English WikipediaPublic domainSource
Bella graffiti — Credit: David Buttery (Loganberry (Talk))Public domainSource
Virgil Starks' Grave Marker — Credit: JeremeKCC BY-SA 3.0Source
Katsuyama Marines — Credit: U.S. MilitaryPublic domainSource
A DC-3 útvonala — Credit: Koba-chan; cropped, marked and wording by Laszlovszky András at Hungarian WikipediaPublic domainSource
Alleged 1967 photograph of Louis Sodder — Credit: Unknown; edited slightly by Daniel Case prior to upload herePublic domainSource
File:Gay Gibson Porthole Murder 1947.jpg — Credit: Professional photographer, commissioned by the subject herself, 1946Public domainSource
General collins Road — Credit: நான் தூங்கCC BY-SA 3.0Source
Sleepy Lagoon defendants (acquitted) reunited with family, 1944 — NOT the victimCC BY 4.0SourceThese files are published and cited but are kept out of search listings for now, either because they fall outside Casepin’s true-crime scope or because they are still being deepened.
60. By status: 21 unsolved, 6 cold, 32 solved and 1 overturned. The count covers published files only and changes as new files clear review.
The killing of Elizabeth Short, with 6 videos, podcasts and documentaries linked from its file. Open the file
Kendall Rae (1 case), Dr. Todd Grande (1 case) and Bailey Sarian (1 case), among 8 creators in all.
United States (13), Ukraine (6) and Israel (4).
It rebuilds hourly from the published files; the newest file change here is dated Jul 16, 2026. A status changes only when the record behind it does.
